Hello,
I am reviewing the BLF Q8 flashlight. An excellent high-power light designed by experts on this forum, built by Thorfire, and sold by Banggood.
Video review is here:
My written review is still in progress, but I will post it here soon.
I was given a discount code by Banggood which can be used to bring the price down to $48.50. (Regular price seems to be $80 right now.) Use the code on checkout, when you get the light here: https://goo.gl/s33rnu
The code is e5a236
(Yeah, I know, really easy to remember!)
Great review. I should have mine in less than a week
Boycott Nike
Excellent... I have 3 co-workers that want lneand I had hoped I could get them a discount.
That price is plenty fair.
My only concern is that they are muggles...
Terry White
Skype terrywhite1@live.com
IMO, I think the price is fair at the $80 regular price. At $48.50, I think it’s a steal. It’s not quite as cheap as the $40 initial group buy price, but I have no idea how they’re able to sell it for that. I think this was an outstanding design by the team on this forum.
My only complaint about the light (which I’ll mention in my written review), is that it’s a heavy light. Naturally, it is, because of the heat-sinking and build quality. So, it’s really not much of a complaint, since it’s required to make the light so great at handling the high output. But, hey, I have to come up with something.
As for muggles using the light. Don’t worry. Its standard default ramping configuration is very easy to use. The only thing I’d recommend is to turn off strobes.
Also, I really like they used batteries in parallel. That makes it safe even for muggles. I’d never recommend a multiple lithium-ion light that uses cells in series, for newbies.
I only took mine to work to get a thermal image of it... which didn't happen because we only have 2 imagers and they are constantly in use.
Long story short about half the department wanted to see how bright a multiple emitter light is. They already know if it is mine it will smoke anything in the building.
Once they saw it ramp up about half way that thought it was incredible lol... then I kicked it into turbo and they had to know where to get one.
After explaining the power source only 3 left that said they would still want one.
I got lucky and saw your review.
It really is a far better price than I would have imagined.
Now... what will I do when they see Giggles... lol they will be on their own. That could easily retail for 300...
Terry White
Skype terrywhite1@live.com
Oh, I hate you guys. I really do.
I wasn’t even planning to get a Q8, like, wtf would I “need” with a light that bright, eh?
For just a smidge over half-price, I just had to go get one.
I just placed the order…
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Such a good, organized review, man! Nice!
Hi WITL
Nice review mate
I liked your clever use of stills in the video
It’s given me the courage to take on configuring the strobes off with confidence
Come on George you can do it , just say to yourself I am strong and I can do it …I am strong and I can do it
G'day mate, ow ya garn?
Yeah, nah good mate
Heh, yeah, I have a video on my youtube page that shows me “smoking” paper with it in seconds. So, yes, it will literally smoke stuff!
Yes, lithium-ion powered lights aren’t for everyone. Luckily, this light uses them in parallel and has low-voltage protection for safety. But, good 18650’s can be hard to get at times. It’s not as easy as loading cheap alkaleaks into a dollar-store light and throwing them away when they’re done.
For people that have never used rechargeable batteries, I’d probably start out with something fail-safe, like Eneloops. You’re limited to about a thousand lumens on a 4xAA light, which is still pretty good for anyone that’s only ever used maglites.
Nice review!
Thanks
It is done when it is done
How my BLF Specials generally work, please read before asking Qs
The Q8, Exciting a groupbuy for a Premium BLF special high lumens soda can light!
The GT, A BLF special GIGA thrower
The FW3A, a TLF BLF special small, elegant, powerful triple
Lithium Ion safety 101 important read
Sorry grammarlovers, I am a real King Typo.
_Heh heh hehhhh_...come on over...
Break the circle, stretch the line, call upon the devil
Bring the gods, the gods' own fire In the conflict revel. Jethro Tull...
You'll luv it...
I only need food/water/oxygen/(sex)
I WANT everything else
Great review, just ordered…thanks!
Yes, the stills were very helpful. I wish more video reviewers would do this.
Great review. I hope to get mine next week.
Chuck Roxas
Is there any way to configure the BLF Q8 so that the power button LED is On when the light is turned ON (as well as OFF)?
I don’t believe so.
Yeah, nothing in the docs about how to do it, but the last paragraph says “Switch Indicator LED – TBD…”, so I was hoping there might be a secret command…
How is disabling the power switch led done?
Chuck Roxas
Go into battery-check mode, by doing 3 quick clicks while the light is off.
Do a click&hold, then release.
The light will blink twice rapidly, then blink once.
Click once (before the light starts blinking the next configuration setting).
Wait a few seconds, the light should blink 4 times.
Done.
Or, what I prefer to do, it just disable it temporarily:
From off, press and hold the switch to start ramping up the light.
Then, let go of the switch, and quickly click it again.
The light will turn off, and the switch LED will remain off.
It will come on again the next time you use the light.
Thanks WITL!
Chuck Roxas
I got 4 batteries from illumn at the same time, but they came in pairs and are the same part number. Is it ok to use these in the Q8 even though they came in pairs and not 4 in one box?
Yes, they will be fine together.
Charge them up at the same time with the same charger to keep them equal.
Good to know, thank you!
Just to know the Q8 works with 1, 2, 3 or 4 batteries. So, if you run it on one battery, is it still going to give you the same lumens in all modes and divided by 4 for how long it will run in each mode compared to using 4 batteries?
I’ve used it with 1 battery. On a Samsung 30Q cell, it will give about 50% output compared to using 4 cells. I also tried an old laptop-pull cell (low drain), and it gave about 40% output for a couple of minutes, before stepping down to about 20%.
I think most of the drop in output is due to the large voltage sag you get when trying to pull all those amps from a single cell. I was a little surprised a single 30Q cell (which is supposed to be rated at 15 amps) only gave 50% brightness. I guess the voltage sag is more than I expected.
Thought there would be quite a power loss. I only have protected batteries at the moment, so I'll always use 4 of them. I have the stronger protected keeppowers for the Q8, but I wonder how the regular NCR1860B would fair in that flashlight? I have four of them as well I could use for backup if need be.
I think the NCR18650B should be fine, if you’re using all 4 cells. It would only be using about 4 amps per cell, at most. You’ll probably lose a few hundred lumens at max brightness, compared to high-drain cells, but that wouldn’t even be noticeable.
Ah, that's even better than I was hoping for. So I'll keep those NCR's with me on long camping trips then.
I was comparing my Q8 to my L6 and the Q8 floods more and is a little brighter. What an awesome little light, I think it's my favorite now. I notice sometimes the led shuts off on my switch. The only way I can figure to get it back on at the moment is to unscrew the battery tube a little and then screw it back on and it lights up again. I may be doing something wrong and turning off the switch by accident but I don't know as of yet what I am doing wrong.
I’d sure like to see another coupon on the Q8 like the OP had again.
“In many things in order to truly understand the small picture you have to understand the big picture first.”
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